writing

  • Behind “The Process” Quickie: The Simplest Trick to Writing Believable Characters

    Wanna hear one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received for writing fiction? If you’re characters aren’t authentic, your story will be flat. The best way to write authentic characters? When presented with a difficult situation in real life, almost everyone will instinctively behave in a selfish way. When they don’t, it makes…

  • Behind “The Process”: Practice? We’re Talkin about Practice? Not the Game, But Practice?

    For folks who saw the title and thought, The hell is he goin on about? I can’t even begin to describe it. Here… So, yes. Practice. We’re talking about practice. Not the game. What you do before the game, which, in this case, the game is writing fiction. It’s an odd game with many facets,…

  • Happy New Ye… I mean… Yeah…

    Happy New Year!!! I know, I know: It’s been two weeks since we said goodbye to 2019. Duh. But I stopped going online–or at least greatly reduced the amount of time I spent online–during the holidays. Why did I do that? Cuz, silly. I have a wife and four kids who (thankfully) still like having…

  • Writerly Reflections on 2019, Hopes for 2020

    Hey. It’s been a minute. I’ve intentionally gotten on here (and social media) less the last two weeks to enjoy family time over the holidays. The few times I have checked in, I saw a lot of posts about how much 2019 sucked. To them, I’m sorry things aren’t going well, and I truly hope…

  • Behind “The Process”: Just Kill Em Already (Editing)

    Don’t freak out–it’s just a euphemism. I’m referring to the quote all English majors are familiar with: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” – William Faulkner There are plenty of writers’ resource websites out there that break this down. What makes mine different? Um…the other websites aren’t this one? I dunno. Aaaaaanyway… He…